Bulldogs

Well, the holiday weekend is upon me and I find myself curled up with the latest edition of Bulldogs, a magazine from the popular dog series. Tillie is my very first bulldog, and I have to say she is really something. She is a mini bulldog, which means she is 35 lbs full grown instead of the 50+ lbs she would normally be. As far as I know the AKC does not recognize this as a breed, as they say it is still a bit new. My trainer wasn't too happy with her at first, calling her a designer breed. But Tillie has won her over as far as the soleful eyes and the loving personality is concerned. The thing with Tillie is, that more than any other dog in my life, I can read her like a book. Now many of you will say no big deal right. I mean when you dog wants you to throw the ball, he brings it to you. Or if he wants out, they go sit by the door. But I do not mean this type of communication. It is like I read her mind. This is very strange for me. Okay, for example, the other day she was just sitting on the couch chewing on her ball( as usual), I was puttering around with dinner as I had my inlaws over so I was not so focused on Tillie. I do not know why, but at a given moment, I looked over to her. She had stopped chewing the ball and was just looking at me. Her face had a funny twist to it. ( If you have ever had the pleasure of keeping company with a bulldog, you know what I mean, this is very normal) and yet, this was different. I stopped, and walked to the front room and grabbed her lease, I said nothing. Tillie was right behind me and she stretched her neck out( as best a bulldog can) for me to put the leash on. I opened the door and she frantically took me outside. She had to poop. I mean, HAD to. No passing go, collecting $200 bucks. She never drags me, for the most part, bulldogs like to sonder, waddle, or bounce a bit. NOT THIS TIME. But this was so weird, how did I know to get the leash and take her out. Her signal to me for this is like most dogs, to sit at the door. She is just so fun and funny. I really get a kick out of her. I love dogs, but Tillie is really different. Bulldogs are discribed as doing what is needed but with as little effort is necessary. If Tillie barks, she barks just 3 times, and then looks to me, as if to say " Mom, you gunna check that out?" I taught her to go limp, when I point a finger at her and say"bang!" I am sure, if you love dogs, you have seen this done. Most dogs, like a Australian cattle dog, or a Benji type, the legs just seem to fly out from under the dog and they are dead, dead, until the owner says" good dog" or whatever. AHHHH, but Tillie is a Bulldog, and Bulldogs do things differently. If you say "Bang" to Tillie, she may fall over dead, but it is not the way I have discribed. She will stagger, throw her head in the air, and give a Norma Desmond performance like you have never seen before. OR, she will just sit there and stare at me. If I am showing off to my friends, and she does the Latter, I just say" what happened, I must've loaded blanks, and reload my gun, and then she falls. Crazy!! She continually amazes me. She will not go to sleep in my presence. I have heard from many a Bulldog owner, that Bulldogs take the art of Napping to new heights. If my husband takes Tillie to visit friends or family, she will pass out on the floor like a normal dog and sleep for a bit. Never with me, it is as though she worries that she is going to miss something or that I need watching.( Now that I think of it, she is mostly likely right) So she will stay up until she is so drunk with the need to sleep, that she staggers and falls down, yet she will still not give in. I call this the Disneyland syndrome, if you have kids you know what I mean by that. Kids will just not allow themselves a nap, and will push hard to stay up because they are at Disneyland, and will not miss anything. Then they pass out on the way home in the car. So when I see this happening, I have to tell her it is time for a nap and she toddles off to a crate I keep next to our bed and waits for me to close the door. She is usually snoring before I get the latch shut. Bulldogs are terrific at snoring as well, and I love that . When my husband was in the hospital last year( heart surgery) he kept asking me to go home instead of staying with him at the hospital. I could not sleep, Tillie was staying with friends and my husband was in the hospital, my house was quiet like a tomb, NO Snoring, I was miserable. Finally, when my husband said I could stay, he said the nurses and doctors who came in and out that first night could not believe how I slept through all the lights going on and off and the prodding of my husband. If they had only asked me, I would have told them I had not slept in days.
Have a lovely holiday, here's hoping it is as fun filled as mine is turning out to be.